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Former Ficano assistant gets 7.5 years for wire fraud

A former assistant to Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano will serve 7.5 years in federal prison for wire fraud in a kickback scheme involving an insurance program.

Michael Grundy, 42, a former assistant executive and executive director of HealthChoice of Michigan, a county health insurance program for the needy, received that sentence Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood in Detroit. Ficano fired Grundy in late 2011, a few months before charges were brought.

Grundy, of Detroit, pleaded guilty in June 2013 to “honest services wire fraud,” a felony punishable by a maximum 20 years in prison, and admitted he had caused the accountant of HealthChoice to wire transfer $400,000 to a company called Medtrix LLC.

Grundy had indicated the payment was part of a contract to develop and implement an electronic medical records system for HealthChoice medical providers, but the company never developed such a system for the county.

Medtrix owner Keith Griffin of Carmel, Ind., pleaded guilty to the wire fraud scheme in 2012 and testified during Grundy’s nine-day sentencing hearing in May and June.